In December 2001 the total turnover on all market segments of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange was SIT 46.59 billion and reached the highest monthly value of the year. A record value was reached also by the total turnover of this year since it exceeded the record turnover of the year 2000 by almost 30%. In 2001 the total turnover on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange amounted to SIT 348.64 billion, which was SIT 79 billion more than in the year 2000.
In terms of the total turnover in December 2001 shares reached 61.5%, followed by bonds with 22.3% and shares of investment funds with 13.5% of total turnover. The share of short-term securities was 2.1% and the share of pension coupons was 0.6%. The share of the official market in the total turnover in December was 69.6% and the turnover of shares on the official market reached 82.1% of the total turnover of shares.
In the 18 trading days of December, 26,517 transactions were concluded. The average number of transactions per day in December was 1,473, slightly above the daily average of the year, which was 1,296 transactions. A total of 320,157 transactions were concluded this year, less than the year before, when 396,602 transactions were recorded.
The daily average turnover in December went up, and amounted to SIT 2.6 billion. Similarly the average value of a single transaction was higher in December with SIT 1.8 million, far above the year 2000 average of SIT 680 thousand. The average value of a single transaction in the year 2001 was also higher and amounted to SIT 1 million.
Block trading
December was a record month also in the number of reported block trades. 227 block trades were reported with a total value of SIT 28 billion. That was 60.1% of the total monthly turnover and slightly above this year's monthly average of 56.6%. The average value of a single block trade was slightly lower than in November. It amounted to SIT 123.2 million.
1,512 block trades were reported in the year 2001. Their value amounted to SIT 197.4 billion, representing 56.6% of the total turnover on the Exchange in the period under review.
Indices
In the last month of 2001 the share prices continued to grow and the three leading stock exchange indices, the index SBI 20, the Free Market Index IPT and the Authorised Investment Funds Index PIX all reached record heights in 2001. They all recorded positive returns but their movements differed considerably.
The blue chip index SBI 20 continued to grow until 19 December when it reached its absolute record value of 2,159.4 points. Later it decreased and ended the year at 2,151.6 points, but it still recorded a positive return of 1%.
The IPT Index recorded slightly higher oscillations as on 14 December it reached this year's record value of 1,769.7 points then fell by 2% and later started to grow and continued until the end of the month to record a 0.1% return. Similarly the Authorised Investment Funds Index - PIX - went up 1.1% in December to reach its record value of this year, 1,588 points. The movements of the Bond Index - BIO - were dull in the first half of the month and negative in the second, so that the index recorded a 0.5% drop in value.
Three of the six Industrial Sector Indices grew in value in December. The highest return was recorded by the index Food and beverages with 4.4%. On account of price growth of both pharmacists, Lek and Krka, the index Pharmaceuticals grew by 2.9%. Oil and gas also grew in the last month recording a positive return of 0.7%. The strongest drop of 2.5% was recorded by the index Trade due to declining shares of Živila Kranj and Mercator (over 4%). Negative return was recorded also by the indices Chemicals (-0.9%) and Transport (-0.1%).
Price movements of selected shares
Prices of twenty-three shares out of a total of thirty-nine shares on the official market increased. The highest values in an otherwise meagre turnover were reached by the shares of Nika (59.6%) and Banka Vipa (40.8%). Between 10% and 20% in value was gained by the shares of Pivovarna Union, Tehnounion and Etol. The value of sixteen shares decreased. Among those the deepest drop was recorded by the shares of Delo (6.5%) and Živila Kranj (6.2%). Shares of Mercator recorded a negative return of 4.7% and Luka Koper of 4.3%. The remaining ten shares recorded a negative return of less than 2%.
The comparison of prices over the past twelve months points to even better results as the value of twenty-eight shares in the official market increased - the leading share was that of Banka Koper with a 170.3% growth and Pivovarna Union with 120.8%. A remarkable increase of 75.2% was recorded by the share of Istrabenz. More than 40% in value was gained by the shares of Intereuropa, Banka Vipa and Kolinska. The value of eleven shares fell, the worse drop was recorded by Tehnounion (54.5%), followed by the share of SKB banka with a -34.2% return.
Foreign investments
In December the net inflow of all foreign investments (direct and portfolio investments in shares and bonds, except primary issues) amounted to SIT 16,761.54 million (SIT 21,742.87 in November), of which SIT 753.68 million was contributed by the organised market and SIT 16,007.86 million by the off-the-organised market. The comparison with December 2000 shows a considerably higher net inflow this year, since last year only SIT 643.71 million of total net inflow was recorded.
Foreign investors accounted for 6.02% of the turnover of shares on the Exchange in December. The share of foreign ownership in the market capitalisation of shares on the Exchange was 9.4% at the end of November 2001. Foreign ownership reached its highest level in May 1998 - 12.23%.
Market capitalization
On 31 December 2001 the total market capitalization of securities, traded on the Exchange (including shares of investment companies - SIT 162.37 billion) amounted to SIT 1,380 billion, which was SIT 26.2 billion or 1.9% more than the month before.
Market capitalisation of shares on the official market grew the most - by SIT 16.3 billion. Price growth was the exclusive reason. Market capitalisation of shares on the free market decreased by SIT 2 billion, thus the total increase in market capitalisation of shares in December was 1.1%. Compared to November the capitalisation of shares of authorised investment funds increased by SIT 1.6 billion or 1% and of bonds SIT 360.9 billion.
Year on year the market capitalisation of shares listed on the official market of the Exchange increased from SIT 579.5 billion to SIT 697.3 billion or by 20.3% and of shares on the free market by 21.6%, from SIT 125.7 billion to SIT 152.7 billion. On 31 December 2001, the market capitalisation of all shares traded on the Exchange (SIT 850 billion) made up 20.9% of GDP in the year 2000 - SIT 4,074 billion at current prices. (Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia).
